1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to word-puzzle games, and in particular to a cartridge in a book format accommodating two decks of cards on each of which is printed a two-word puzzle, the arrangement being such that when the cartridge is in its open book state, cards may then be drawn from the deck by players of the game.
2. Status of Prior Art
Lewis Carroll, the pen name of a 19th Century English writer and mathematician, whose mathematical works are now almost forgotten, wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 and thereby achieved a measure of immortality. While intended for children, it is now a favorite among literate adults, not only because of the fanciful characters created by Carroll, but also by reason of his ingenious and playful use of the English language.
Lewis Carroll's fascination with the multiple meanings of even simple words and the fact that by changing a single letter in a word, one then had a new word having an altogether different meaning, led him to invent a word puzzle game in which the player is presented with a phrase containing two words, each having the same number of letters. In order to win a point in this game, the player must succeed within a given time in so transforming the first word as to create the second word. To this end, the player is permitted to either change one letter in the first word or to rearrange the letters which form this word to make another word, until by a series of such transformations he arrives at the second word.
To give a simple example, we shall assume that the phrase presented to a player is "OPT to leave a TIP;" hence the words forming the puzzle are OPT TIP. In order to transform OPT to TIP and thereby score one point, the player first changes OPT TO TOP by rearranging the letter, and he then changes TOP to TIP by replacing O with I.
Another and more difficult example is WORD TREK. To solve this word puzzle so as to transform the first word WORD to the second word TREK, the player must first change WORD to WORE. He must then change WORD to WARE, then change WARE TO WEAR, change WEAR to REAR, change REAR to REEL, and change REEL to REEF. The player then must rearrange the letters of REEF to spell FREE, and then change FREE to TREE. Finally, the player must change TREE to TREK.
Thus while some word pairs are not too difficult to transform to derive the second word from the first, in other cases it requires a great deal of ingenuity to effect the necessary transformation within a predetermined time period.